Up-to-the-minute advice, information, resources, and, on occasion, commentary on federal and New Jersey state income taxes, and the various New Jersey property tax rebate programs, and insights and observations on tax policy and professional tax practice, by 40-year veteran tax professional Robert D Flach.

Monday, November 28, 2011

WHAT’S NEW FOR 2011 FEDERAL INCOME TAX FORMS

Since,
for a change, the IRS did not have to wait for Congress to pass extenders this
year, many of the new 2011 forms and schedules have been available at the Forms
and Instructions section of the IRS website for a while now.

There
is no change to the “body” of Page 1 of the 2011 Form 1040.It is exactly the same as 2010.However there is a new line in the name and
address section for “Foreign country name”, “Foreign province/country”, and
“Foreign postal code”.

The
“Other Taxes” section of Page 2 adjusts Line 59 to create 59a for “Household
employment taxes from Schedule H” and 59b for First-time homebuyer credit
repayment” (you do not necessarily have to complete Form 5405).Line 60 now reads “Other taxes” with a place
for one to enter code(s) identified in the instructions.

The
line for the Making Work Pay credit is removed from the “Payments” section –
with 64 (a + B) through 72 the same as 2010.

The
same change was made to the name and address section of the 2011 Form 1040A,
with the rest of Page 1 unchanged.

Page
2 loses three (3) lines –

·Advance
earned income credit payments.

·The
addition of net income tax from Line 35 and advance EIC payments.

·Making
Work Pay Credit

The only change on the 2011 Schedule A is that Line 7 under “Taxes” now reads “Personal property taxes” instead of
“New motor vehicle taxes”.

As I discussed in earlier posts the
2011 Schedules C and E have separate income lines for “Gross merchant card and
third party network” receipts and gross receipts not from gross merchant card
and third party networks, and Page 1 of Schedule D is totally restructured to
refer to entries from the new Form 8949 (which replaces the Schedule D-1).

The 2011 Schedule SE has been revised
to reflect the new temporary tax rate for the Social Security equivalent
portion of self-employment tax, and remove the reference to reducing taxable
earnings by the above-the-line self-employed health insurance deduction.

And, of course, there is no more
Schedules L or M.

It appears that the “most changed”
form for 2011 is Form 5695 (Residential Energy Credits).

I will report on changes to 2011 NJ
and NY forms when the forms become available.

Before contacting me with questions about how a blog post relates to your specific situation, please be aware that I do not give free tax advice to non-clients by e-mail, comment response, or phone. So don't waste your time and mine.